NEW YORK, Jan. 27 (UPI) -- Cuba Gooding Jr. told reporters in New York recently he met the mentally handicapped man his character is based on in "Radio."
"I met him, we took a few pictures, and he said: 'Do you know who I am? I'm Radio,' and he hung around the set for about a week," the Oscar-winning "Jerry Maguire" star explained. "But it's not really a conversation thing ... He's got a personality like my youngest son. He's so innocent and so open, but not real attentive to certain things."
"Radio" was released Tuesday on DVD and home video.
"I play James Robert Kennedy who is a mentally handicapped man and the movie takes place in the early 1970s (in the south,)" he said.
"This man hung around this high school and befriended an athletic director by the name of coach Harold Jones, played by Ed Harris, and it's how these two men's relationship changed this town and they didn't see color with this man. It kind of brought them together. They made him an honorary high school student in the 11th grade and he's been in the 11th grade for 32 years now."
